Which relevance for the EEA? Water & economics: Which relevance for the EEA? Atelier WFD-Economics: taking stock and looking ahead Liège – 19 & 20 Octobre 2010

The presentation Key issues for the EEA EEA’s main activities ETC-Water Framework contract on environmental economics Feeding into…

Key issues for the EEA (1) Investigating policy questions (illustrative) Which possible trade-offs between alternative water policies and economic strategies? What are cost effective measures for reaching policy objectives? If not applied (why?), which additional aggregated burden (cost) on society (individual sectors)? How could (new) economic instruments (including voluntary agreements, tradable permits, etc.) lead to long-term sustainable management of water resources? Which expected (socio-economic, environmental) impact? Which economic value of goods and services provided by aquatic ecosystem? Which costs imposed on society as a result of their degradation?

Key issues for the EEA: streamlining the knowledge base How could ecosystem/water accounts support the implementation of water policy? Which links (e.g. information flows) between ecosystem/water accounts and water policy? (WFD, MSFD…) Which new indicators for capturing the economic dimension of water? In particular, how to capture the economic value of the goods and services provided by aquatic ecosystems ?

How does the EEA address these issues? Two parallel but complementary streams of activities Stream 1 – Work of the European Topic Centre-water Task 1.4.2.6: Water and economics Task 2.4.2.4: MSFD: understanding of economic elements Stream 2 – A Framework contract on environmental economics (specific lot on freshwater economics)

The ETC-Water “economics”: objectives, activities and policy links WFD: Review of the RBMPs reporting exercise: templates on objectives and exemptions, pricing, programme of measures and agriculture Support the development of ecosystem capital accounts in water MSFD Understanding of the economic elements of the Directive Follow progress of the WG ESA Development of maritime socio-economic indicators Marine/maritime ecosystem assessments - Eureca

First activities of the framework contract: linking WFD and water accounts (1) Clarification of terminology Data mining and Assessment of economics Information - Review RBMPs and other documents Incorporation of economics information into SEEAW and EEA fast track ecosystem accounts 

First activities of the framework contract: linking WFD and water accounts (2) A reminder on the first System of Integrated Economic and Environmental Accounting (SEEA, 1993/WB & UN)) Objective: to study the economy of water by describing in monetary terms the use and supply of water-related products Focus on: (a) the costs associated with the production of products, (b) the income generated by their production, (c) the investment in water-related infrastructure and the costs to maintain them, (d) the fees paid by the users for water related services as well as subsidies received. Overall, to present the conventional national economic accounts together with the physical information on water abstraction and discharges of wastewater and pollutants into the environment.

First activities of the framework contract: linking WFD and water accounts (3) A reminder on the EEA work on water accounts: A conceptual framework for the organization of physical and economic information related to water The focus on river basin scale water accounts: stocks, flows, abstractions, returns, transfers of water… for all sectors… on a monthly basis… as support to identify water stress To be complemented with Water quality elements Economic information

First activities of the framework contract: linking WFD and water accounts (4) A reminder on ecosystems accounts: Ecosystem accounts start from physical accounts targeted primarily at measuring ecosystem degradation, and relating this to their capacity to continue delivering services in a sustainable way today and in the future. The degradation is measured by the non-paid remediation costs for achieving a given target (e.g. achieving Good Ecological Status) Non-paid remediation costs are a measurement of the ecosystem capital depreciation. In national accounting terms, it captures the consumption of ecosystem capital

The water economics work: feeding into? EEA 2012 water report A water economics output as part of key “water ” messages for 2012 (sub-assessment), EEA indicator development work (ETC-water) New indicators on resource efficiency incorporating economic information Improved assessment of state of the water environment in Europe WFD and economic analysis of water use Links with other policy areas (agriculture) Incorporation of economics into existing indicators

Many thanks for your attention Atelier Questions, clarification…. For more information: Robert.PeterCollins@eea.europa.eu p.strosser@acteon-environment.eu